Baden-Clay was under intense financial pressure from his struggling real estate business and only a month before he murdered his wife, he asked Moggill MP Bruce Flegg for a $300,000 loan.

He had earlier borrowed $270,000 from three friends and had failed to make interest payments.

His relatives have told people of mortgaging at least one property to pay for his defence.

Justice John Byrne condemned Baden-Clay’s defence strategy, labelling him “remorseless’’ and saying he had exaggerated his wife’s past battles with depression in an effort to beat the murder charge.

“You have insinuated that mental illness may have led to drug overdose or suicide and besmirching Allison’s memory in that way is thoroughly reprehensible,’’ he said.

For weeks, those who knew Allison best listened in horror to a defence that demeaned her and exaggerated her past struggles with depression to give the impression she may have committed suicide.

“To be perfectly candid with you it came to a point where I was doing 80, to 90 nearly 100 per cent of the parenting … because Allison was in a state that wouldn’t really enable her to do anything,’’ Baden-Clay told the court.

“Allison didn’t generally cope very well with that on her own, so I would generally assist her,” he said of caring for the children.

Family and friends have told how Allison’s personality slowly changed as she was subjected to a daily litany of put-downs and criticisms.

They said she often spoke to them of a husband who called her lazy and berated her for not maintaining the garden.